Neal Waltmire: Rauner inconsistent, irresponsible on taxes

Thursday

Jul 24, 2014 at 10:06 PM

Republican billionaire Bruce Rauner has a track record of saying one thing and doing another.

He stumped for months against raising the minimum wage, then tried to deny it. He claims credit for his record in business but wonít take responsibility for the bankruptcies, lawsuits and layoffs left in his wake.

And now Rauner wants to raise taxes on working people, even though recent reports show a pattern of exploiting tax loopholes himself.

Rauner said recently that if heís elected governor, heíll push for 32 different new sales taxes on the people of Illinois. Under Raunerís plan, youíd be taxed to put something in storage, stay overnight in a campground or hire a lawyer.

At nearly the same time, news reports revealed Raunerís own record of using loopholes to avoid paying taxes on his enormous fortune. The Chicago Tribune reported that the IRS now is scrutinizing the sort of schemes Rauner employed to pay a lower tax rate on $53 million of income in 2012 than that paid by millions of middle-class families.

Tax filings also showed that Rauner paid nothing into Social Security and Medicare ó not a single penny ó on income of $55 million in 2010 and 2011.

Yet on the campaign trail, Rauner has refused to rule out forcing Illinois seniors to start paying state income tax on their own Social Security benefits or other retirement income.

He also opposes the millionaireís-tax referendum that asks whether the richest Illinois residents should pay a little bit more to protect our priorities and invest in the great state that made their success possible.

In every instance, it appears Rauner wants to pay less but make us pay more.

The pattern extends to his business record, where time and again, Raunerís companies failed to pay their taxes. Rauner was a director of HealthRev, a collection agency that failed to pay $81,000 in Illinois taxes.

His investment firm GTCR failed to pay nearly $13,000 in unemployment taxes when Rauner was chairman. And his current company, R8 Capital, was disciplined for failure to pay the stateís required license fee.

Finally, thereís Raunerís claim that he will reduce the state income tax over four years. Doing so would blow a massive hole in the stateís budget, forcing devastating cuts to our childrenís education, vital health care services and the safety of our communities, while costing tens of thousands of jobs ó but Rauner himself would wind up with a $1 million annual tax cut.

Rauner seems to think the middle class is taxed too little but billionaires like him need a break. Thatís the opposite of the values of hard work and playing by the rules that built the middle class in this state.

By cutting corners, destroying jobs and putting profits before people, Wall Street CEOs like Rauner are responsible for tearing the middle class down.

In terms a cutthroat CEO like Rauner might understand, hereís the bottom line: Raunerís bank account may be flush with cash, but his values are bankrupt.

If middle-class families hope to get a fair shake, thereís one mansion we canít let Rauner add to the nine he owns already: the governorís.

Neal Waltmire is communications director of Illinois Freedom, a coalition established to educate Illinois voters about the issues at stake in the 2014 gubernatorial election. It is not authorized by any candidate.